Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2005-301916 discloses a manufacturing system that includes a central control computer, which is located in a central control room, and loom computers connected to the central control computer through a network. The loom computers and the central control computer each include a central processing unit (CPU), a memory, an input unit, a display, and external memory, a storage medium drive, a network interface.
The network may be a local area network (LAN), for example. The loom computers and the central control computer communicate through the network to transmit and receive control data and operation data. To communicate through the network, communication addresses are assigned to the loom computers and the central control computer.
Although not described in detail in the '916 publication, when the system uses a TCP/IP network, a unique IP address serving as a communication address has to be assigned and set to each loom computer. Thus, when the network is formed in a weaving mill, a unique IP address has to be set to each of the looms installed in the weaving mill. Setting the IP addresses in the weaving mill is performed manually by an operator. For example, an operator manually inputs and sets an IP address to each of the loom computers while referring to a printout of an IP address list obtained from the central control computer.
The central control computer is configured to generate and store a loom layout map indicating the layout of the looms in the weaving mill. To accurately transfer data between the central control computer and the loom computers, the operator needs to correlate the IP address set for each loom computer with the loom layout map stored in the central control computer.
In the manufacturing system disclosed in the '916 publication, the operator needs to manually and accurately input the IP address for each loom computer while referring to the IP address list. The operator also needs to correctly correlate the IP address of each loom with the loom layout map of the central control computer. The operator refers to the printed IP address list to check the IP address that is to be input and correctly input the IP address to each loom computer. When there are many looms, such a task consumes time and manpower. Further, when an IP address is erroneously input, the operator would have to correct the error.